I reviewed the first two volumes of this series ages ago. For those who need a refresher: Hanayu is a pastry chef's daughter but secretly dreams of being a sushi chef, and Hayato is a sushi chef's son who secretly dreams of being a pastry chef. At the end of the previous volume, Hanayu learned that the sushi chef who made the first sushi she ever ate and who inspired her dream was Hayato's father.

In this volume, Hayato takes Hanayu to his family's sushi restaurant. Hayato's father takes an immediate shine to her and tells her she can work part-time at his restaurant. It's an exciting offer and prompts Hanayu to finally tell her father about her dream. Unfortunately, the news doesn't go over well, and Hanayu spends much of the volume worrying that she's being selfish and letting her father and her younger brother (who has the makings of a pro baseball player, as long as he's not expected to inherit the bakery) down. Meanwhile, Hayato still needs to tell his father about his dream, but can he go through with it after seeing how things went for Hanayu?

Ugh. Hanayu's father disappointed me in this volume. I thought he was more easy-going than that. At least it didn't take him too long to start to unbend. And Hanayu's little brother's reaction to the whole thing was sweet.

I liked this quote (although it's a bit awkwardly worded) from Matsuzaka, Hanayu's teacher: “We adults are hopeless. Because we have a little more experience, we tend to look into the future. And we try to push you toward the path that offers the least chance of failure.” (59) It was said by way of apology after telling Hanayu to give up on her dream, and it reminded me of something my mom once told me. However, I did think it was odd that Matsuzaka hadn't already figured out Hanayu's desire to be a sushi chef, what with Hanayu turning every cooking assignment into something sushi-related.

The end of the volume showed Hanayu working at the sushi shop for the first time...as a waitress. Hanayu didn't seem particularly surprised or disappointed, so I guess this was expected? Even if Hanayu wasn't disappointed, I was, a little, especially when her first day mostly involved smiling a lot and dealing with a grabby customer.

Hmm. The main reason I read this volume was because I stumbled across it in a bargain bin. Volume 3 didn't do much to change my opinion that this is a “meh” series – not exactly bad, but forgettable. I'm kind of amazed that Komura managed to stretch this series out to 8 volumes, since all that's really left is for Hayato to tell his father that he wants to be a pastry chef and for everyone to decide what they're going to do about the two family-owned shops. I predict that Hanayu and Hayato will marry and become the heirs of each other's family shops.

At the moment, I don't plan on making any kind of special effort to continue reading this series. If I stumble across volume 4 at some point, I'll read it, but I have plenty of other manga series I'm looking forward to reading more.

Extras:

Several author sidebars, a 3-page flashback manga showing Hayato's father's POV of little Hanayu's first visit to a sushi shop, and 2 pages of translator's notes.